Despite the last storm mainly only bringing snow to the Mid-Atlantic and extreme coastal areas, this winter will still be engraved in the record books. While the entire Northeast - and majority of the entire eastern half of the US for that matter - is above average in terms of snowfall, the departures are particularly high through New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania...where snowfall is 20 - 40 inches above normal! This can be seen in the image above. That figure is enough to rank in the top 5 snowiest winters all-time for many. If you take a closer look at the chart below, the winter of 2013-2014 now ranks #2 all time for both Islip, NY and Philadelphia, with Allentown, PA now rising to #3 all time. That raises the question, "Is there a chance we get that one last late March or April storm?" We'll discuss the possibility below.
The last few days of March and April typically do not average very much, if any snowfall for the above locations. In fact for the month of April Philadelphia only averages 0.6", Allentown 0.8", and Central Park 0.6" of snow. With these averages in mind you can see that it is rather unlikely any of the locations above will move into that coveted #1 spot for the 2013-2014 season. However, getting a few inches of snow in April is not completely unheard of. The greatest monthly snowfall for Central Park in April was 13.5" back in 1874-75...the last time Central Park saw measurable snow in April was 2006, when 0.1" fell, and as recently as 2003, 4.0" of snow was recorded in April. So what are the prospects for the rest of this season? Well we have a storm system that will move through bringing plenty of rain this weekend, but any snow is looking unlikely for these locations. We may need to keep an eye on the April 4th - 11th period as conditions look to turn cooler and more unsettled, which could include a low chance for snow. After this, heading into mid and late April snow becomes exceedingly rare and we are not seeing any strong signs for snow after this point.
